Lockheed Martin expands Additive Manufacturing capabilities with state-of-the-art Texas facility

Lockheed Martin has announced the addition of a state-of-the-art Additive Manufacturing facility at its Grand Prairie, Texas, USA site. The expansion includes the addition of large-format, multi-laser Additive Manufacturing machines, as well as heat treatment and inspection equipment that enables rapid development and production of AM parts across the corporation. This includes the installation of two NXG 600E machines from Nikon SLM Solutions.

“We continue to invest in AM technology to provide value for our customers in a way that empowers our engineers to innovate and rapidly integrate new product designs and capabilities to the production floor,” said Tom Carrubba, vice president of production operations at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. “This allows us to create affordable and modular designs that can simplify both high and low-volume production processes.”

Transforming product design and development

The expansion leverages one of its existing machining hubs and is intended to support its customers’ immediate and future product needs across Lockheed Martin and drive continued Additive Manufacturing growth in the industry.

“As part of our 1LMX digital transformation initiative, we are implementing AM in the early phases of our new product designs as a technical risk reduction tool,” said Hector Sandoval, a Lockheed Martin fellow. “Other benefits of AM include improved product performance, as well as reduced development and lead time of our product portfolio.”

The machines used in Lockheed Martin’s facilities can produce intricate geometries and lightweight structures that reduce machining operations, lead times and material waste by manufacturing near-finished parts. Additionally, AM allows for the creation of concepts that were previously unattainable and increasing capacity and agility with its supply chain partners supporting a more robust industrial base.

“Using this state-of-the-art, large platform AM technology at Lockheed Martin enables us to rapidly iterate and manufacture all of our products, resulting in savings and design freedom for all of our customers,” stated Brian Kaplun, a Lockheed Martin fellow. “AM lives in the digital world and this allows us to support our customers in a far more nimble and responsive fashion than if we were using traditional design and manufacturing methods.”

Decades in the making

Through Additive Manufacturing processes, Lockheed Martin is able to deliver its systems with speed, agility, innovation and competitiveness. A key tenet of its digital and business transformation processes, AM supports its 21st Century Security solutions with benefits realised across the entire lifecycle of its products.

The digital nature of AM enables manufacturers to precisely control the production process, ensuring high levels of accuracy and consistency and resulting in significant benefits in repeatability and qualified processes for its customers. Additionally, AM designs can be iterated, optimised and produced more efficiently than traditional manufacturing methods, reducing time and cost while ensuring high-quality parts.

AM in practice

For example, in developing the multi-mission Mako hypersonic missile, engineers used AM to make guidance housing and tail fin parts. They demonstrated that these critical assemblies met requirements at a fraction of the cost – 1/10th – and reduced production time, making it 10 times faster and cheaper compared to conventional subtractive methods. In a customer space where agility, speed and affordability are king, AM is helping to move the needle.

Lockheed Martin has also implemented AM technology on many new and legacy programmes such as manufacturing F-35 simulator cockpits and components on GMLRS.

By using a model-based engineering approach and leveraging AM expertise, the company redesigned a GMLRS antenna assembly test unit, reducing the number of parts. This enabled cost savings per unit and reduced months off its production schedule driving solutions faster and more affordably.

There are significant AM opportunities in operations on its current production programmes. This may include greater cost and schedule savings. The ability to produce much larger structures with these AM systems is a competitive advantage against near-peer threats and provides unique solutions for national security.

AM also enables technical and supply chain-risk reduction. By using AM as replacements for items such as brazements, heat exchangers, casting, etc., Lockheed Martin can consolidate parts and reduce the product design phase and manufacturing lead time.

www.lockheedmartin.com

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